Posted on 02/16/2009 6:33:00 AM PST by Xth Legion
Researchers scanned the brains of certain men as they looked at a photograph of a woman in a bikini and discovered that sections of the brain that usually reacted to objects lit up.
With men, who were known to have sexist tendencies, they also discovered that a part of the brain that usually turned on during social interaction actually de-activated when they saw the photograph.
Professor Susan Fiske, of Princeton University, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting that she believes that the results show that some men did not see sexualised women as a "human".
"I am not saying that they literally see them as an object, of course they know she is human," she said.
"But what the brain scans show is that they are reacting to this photograph as people react to objects. It is as if they are not fully human.
"They are not treating them as fully three dimensional humans."
She said that the constant bombardment of society with sexualised images of young women could be to blame and that it "decreased the extinct that they were seen as human".
She said the effect was rather like violence on television that studies had shown to desensitise people to the affects of violence.
"I think that there is a parallel in seeing lots of sexualised women," she added. "You get used to it."
She said the effect was particularly powerful in the workplace and that studies had shown that men interviewing sexually attractive women behaved very differently towards them than other women and men.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Why is this nonsense? I think it is perfectly makes sense.
Parts of me are lit up.
My wife says I never listen to her, or something like that.
Just guessing but thats not a picture of the study author, is it?
What lights up if shown a picture of Hillary or Pelosi?
What, no proofreaders at the Guardian?
And, I might interject - the sexualization of young women and the bombardment of men with such images has a bigger purpose - and the target is the nuclear family.
Half naked? You're a sick puppy.
Someone needs to do a study involving how women view half-naked men.
A photograph IS an object. Men reacted to objects, big deal.
I think the men should have been exposed to actual topless women while scanned, then to photographs. Scientific method and all that “controlling variables” stuff.
A better experiment would be if the woman was up close and in person - then see what would lite up!
The author doesn’t understand the difference between “object” and “objective”! ;-P
GMTA
A Bic directly beneath the photo.
I wonder if they’d pay for volunteers to be tested...
Of course they do ... photographs are objects.
Professor Susan Fiske, of Princeton University.
Better than Helen... :P
*shudder*
You are the winner. Your check is in the mail.
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